Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition by Elizabeth Knox (top 5 ebook reader txt) 📕

He was thinking the same thing that I was. The last fucker we saw get shot with one of those arrows started shaking and foaming at the mouth. That shit can’t happen to Brendan. Not today.

The run back to our bikes is much quicker than our run out.

“You good? Can you ride?” I yell out to Brendan.

“Yeah,” he grunts and gets his legs over the body of his bike, I can see the sweat pouring down his face. He isn’t alright. “I got this, let’s get out of here.”

“Bullshit, he’s not going to make it all the way home,” Spark says, reaching over and securing his brother on his bike.

“Fuck that we just need to get out of this area, then we can make further decisions. We have to move!” I order and on cue. An arrow slices the air right by Cody’s head.

“Motherfuckers! Who the fuck do you think you are messing with?! This isn’t the fucking wild west.” Cody pulls his weapons and starts popping shots in the direction the arrow came from. They brought a bow to a gunfight, fucked up shit was they were winning.

“Cody, let’s fucking go!” I order and crank my bike up.

We pull off, peeling out of the fucking area like my damn life depended on it. It did and so did my brothers. After thirty minutes on the road, Brendan couldn’t go any more. We stopped in a truck stop area and called for our backup. Unfortunately, our backup was only Winnie.

10

“Brendan, we have to get you to the fucking hospital. I’m pressing with all I fucking have and this shit is still leaking.” Spark throws another blood saturated cloth to the side. He picks up a clean one and continues to put pressure on the wound.

We hear the engine of the pickup truck and Winnie pulls in behind our bikes and hops out with the first aid kit that we told him to bring. Dela hops out right behind him.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Spark growls out.

“What? I mean there is no one back at the clubhouse. I can’t just leave her. Y’all told me to keep my eyes on her.”

“He’s right. She would be unprotected there. Dela, come.” I put my hand out and beckoned her.

“Oh fuck, what happened?” she says as she comes and looks down at Brendan, who is lying on the ground, shielded by only our bikes and the trucks.

“They fucking shot at us with god damn arrows!” Cody spat out. He’s pacing back and forth clearly not taking the fact that his brother is injured well.

“Brendan, that’s it. I’m calling it. We gotta go.”

“No, you heard what Dela said they are all over the place. They’re probably waiting for me to show up. All of you. They’re going to find us there. We have to fix this ourselves,” Brendan groaned out. His breath had become more and more strained since we had stopped.

“He’s right. They are waiting for you. I would put money on it if I had any.” Dela put her thumb to her mouth for a short second before she pulled it out. “Do you have the arrow?”

“What? What for?” I growl at her. We already got it out of him so what the hell did she want the arrow for?

“Just show it to me. I might be able to tell you how to stop it.”

I quickly grab the arrow and give it to her. She turns it over to the back side and looks at the tail of it.

“Malcolm.”

“What?” Brendan groans out and my eyes drop down to him.

“This is Malcolm’s weapon, he is the one who shot you. The color.” She turns the arrow around and puts the stem toward her nose and sniffs it. “Fucking hell, it’s laced. It’s not going to stop bleeding. You have to flush and cauterize that. I promise you no matter how much pressure you put on it, it will never stop bleeding. He is right to say they are going to be looking for him. It’s just one of those ways for them to push their beliefs where they want them. You would go to the hospital, the doctors would be stumped, they would call in backup, you would get picked up, and no one would ever hear from you again.”

“Fuck me. Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack. Which might happen if we don’t get this under control.”

“How do you expect us to cauterize it? You think we have fucking flames shooting out of our fucking palms,” I bark at her. My anger is getting the best of me but she is acting like this is an every fucking day occurrence while I’m over here thinking my brother is about to die.

“Lighter?” She glares at me for a second.

“Oh fuck. Fuck. This is going to fucking suck.” Brendan tries to right himself.

“No, it needs to be hot and long. I’ve seen them use a poker.”

“Does it look like we have a poker? Spark asks.

“We do at the clubhouse,” Winnie says.

“I can’t ride. I’m too tired,” Brendan speaks up.

“Pack the hell out of it. Stuff whatever you have into the wound and we drive like crazy to the clubhouse. Winnie can ride the motorcycle and I can drive.” Dela’s resolution seemed like the best one at the moment.

“Whatever we are going to do, we need to fucking do it fast,” Spark says as he jams some gauze into Brendan who is screaming and trying to pull away. I hold him down.

“Gut the fuck up, Brendan!” I order him. He grabs onto my arm and squeezes but he doesn’t kick away anymore. “Let’s fucking go. You better be right about this.” I stare Dela down again. Inside I know that she isn’t the person that I should be angry with but I need someone to blame. I need someone to release this rage.

“I am. I know I am. Let’s go.” She rushes over to the truck that she just came with Winnie in. Spark